Police recommend charges against 5 in Frazier case

Tuesday

Apr 2, 2013 at 2:23 PMApr 2, 2013 at 4:07 PM

Inquiry follows allegations that assistant football coach groped a high school student.

CHRIS ANDERSON KATY BERGEN

Bradenton Police recommended this week that Manatee High School assistant football coach Rod Frazier and four school district officials, including Assistant Superintendent Bob Gagnon, face criminal charges stemming from allegations that Frazier groped a high school student.

The charges recommended to prosecutors include battery, lying to police and failing to report allegations of child abuse to the state, sources close to a police investigation confirmed to the Herald-Tribune.

The exact distribution of the charges is unclear.

Gagnon, a former Manatee High principal who was briefly district superintendent; Frazier; and former Manatee district investigator Debra Horne are among those whom police say should be charged, sources said.

The Herald-Tribune has been unable to verify the identities of the two remaining employees.

Frazier has denied any improper behavior with students. His attorney, Ed Mulock, would not comment.

“We'll make our comments in court,” he said.

Reached Tuesday afternoon, Gagnon said that at no time were there suspicions or worries about Frazier's behavior.

“I have a daughter in the school system. I know what reporting is,” Gagnon said. “There's no way I would knowingly let someone hurt a kid.

“This is going to ruin a lot of lives,” he said.

Horne would not comment.

School Superintendent Rick Mills declined to discuss the matter, instead releasing a statement late Tuesday which said in part, “If charges are eventually brought against any of our personnel, the district will take appropriate action which may include placing employees on administrative leave while the matter is processed through the judicial system."

Bradenton Police detectives launched their investigation on Feb. 7 after the Herald-Tribune revealed that the district had probed allegations that Frazier groped a student and sent her inappropriate texts.

Police, who are recommending 17 charges against the five employees, met Monday with the State Attorney's Office and delivered the results of their investigation, sources said.

BPD Chief Michael Radzilowski confirmed that his department had sent capias requests to the State Attorney's Office, but said he would have no further comment on the case.

The State Attorney's Office may take weeks to determine if it will prosecute the five employees named in the Bradenton Police report, submitted after detectives had interviewed more than 50 students, teachers and school staffers.

Battery is a misdemeanor punishable by one year in prison. The charge involves any kind of unwanted touching, from a punch during a fight to grabbing someone by the shoulders.

Failure to report child abuse is a felony punishable by as much as five years in prison, along with fines.

Making a false report to the police is a misdemeanor punishable by one year in prison.

The police inquiry was prompted by a Herald-Tribune story that detailed the school district's quiet investigation of allegations of groping and inappropriate texting between Frazier and a female high school student.

Police and the Department of Children and Families had never been contacted about the incidents, even though school employees are required by law to report suspicions of child or sexual abuse.

Reports of inappropriate behavior on Frazier's part toward students had arisen before.

On Nov. 15, Horne interviewed at least six school employees, but no students or parents, about reported inappropriate incidents between Frazier and four female students. That day, Frazier was put on paid leave by Interim Superintendent David Gayler and ordered to stay away from school property. But Frazier coached a Manatee High state playoff football game against St. Petersburg Northeast the next day.

District officials have not answered questions about why Frazier returned to work after only one day, or whether the investigation was officially closed at that point.

Frazier, 35, was still working Jan. 9 when the mother of a female student who had attended Manatee High delivered a letter to Principal Don Sauer's office. The letter stated that Frazier had improperly touched the girl, sent her text messages, told her he loved her and asked her for a naked photograph of herself.

Horne interviewed the student and her mother just days before Horne was transferred to an assistant principal position at R.H. Prine Elementary in Bradenton.

Assistant Superintendent Scott Martin then took over the Frazier case, and charged district-level directors of schools with handling other investigations that formerly would have been conducted by Horne's department.

The district halted its investigation of Frazier after the police became involved on Feb. 7.

Martin said last week that freezing investigations when law enforcement is involved is typical for all district inquiries.

Frazier was placed on paid leave on Feb. 8. In addition to being an assistant football coach for the Manatee High Hurricane football team, he has been a parent liaison at the school.

The Hurricanes won the state championship in 2011. Last year the team was ranked No. 1 in the country by several polls for much of the year before losing in the semifinals to the eventual state champ, St. Thomas Aquinas.

“The Manatee County School District is for once going to be held accountable for their actions and that is awesome,” said the mother of the student who wrote the letter complaining about Frazier. “Not only for me, but for every other parent in Manatee County.”

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